


Mermaid Lance and Pining Keith

by razor_rosary



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Merlance, Mermaids, Mermen, Merpeople, Mutual Pining, mermaid lance, this sucks and its really sloppy sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-29 23:26:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12095751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/razor_rosary/pseuds/razor_rosary
Summary: exactly what it sounds like





	Mermaid Lance and Pining Keith

The first time Lance saw him, he almost got caught. After another argument with his father, Lance had spun around and swam off to the surface ignoring the king’s shouts ordering his immediate return. He’d heard the trite “I’ll nail your tail to the floor” so many times that he didn’t even flinch anymore. His father wasn’t exactly abusive, just firm. Ever since Lance and Esmerelda’s mother had been killed by a ship, King Aaron had started to think that even in the middle of the ocean, they weren’t safe. 

So they moved.  
The palace was relocated into a cold abyss when Lance was seven and Esme was three, just a couple of months after Queen Maria’s death, and the kingdom moved and mourned with them. Even the furthest houses had sent their condolences. Everyone had loved the queen, for she had been theirs, a symbol of everyone. Lance would always remember that day, even after eleven years.  
As prince and Heir to the throne, Lance didn’t have as much freedom as most merpeople would expect. He was strictly forbidden from going up to the surface and God help him if he swam all the way to the shore as he was doing now. Mermaids were much faster than humans; Lance had seen a couple flapping those stick-like things that they had instead of tails. Legs, they were called. Thus, he made it in just over ten minutes, still a good distance from the sand.

It felt so damn good to be defying his father. Couldn’t he understand that Lance needed a change of scenery? Alone time? He had been seven when his mother died, he still got sad about it, more than he’d like to admit. It didn’t help when the king rehashed her death as a reminder for his sons to never go up to the surface. 

It was in this storm of emotions that the black hair caught his eye.The man had a slightly suntanned complexion as if the fire just couldn’t resist a kiss. Still angry but now curious as well, Lance decided to defy his father yet again by swimming closer, drawing nearer to the stranger. It was the closest he had ever been to a human. The man had his tattooed back to him, and when he turned slightly Lance gasped softly. His profile was perfect, and Lance, realizing that he could be seen at any moment, ducked so that only his blue eyes were showing and the ends of his brown hair caressed his cheeks.The human, apparently sensing that he was being watched, turned his head towards Lance, who immediately ducked under the waves, heart pounding. Did he see me? Even if he had, there’s no way he saw Lance’s tail...right? No, he was too far away, and you can’t see through the surface of the ocean anyway.

A disturbance in the waves caused him to raise his gaze, vision still perfect even in the ocean gloom. His rapidly beating heart almost stopped.

The man was swimming toward him. Lance had to get out of there, but he was frozen with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Were humans all that bad? Were they...were they soft? They killed mom. But the man looked so innocent. Lance knew he could turn into a human, he’d done it before (after his father had gone to bed, of course) but he wasn’t sure he could do it under pressure. And he would have no clothes. For whatever reason, that was the thought that made Lance turn and swim back to the palace as fast as his fins would carry him.

 

~

“Goddammit, Lance! You are the prince and the heir of this kingdom! How do you expect to rule if you constantly put yourself in danger?!”  
Without giving Lance a chance to speak, the King went on with his shouting. “I know you’ve gone up to the surface before, but I truly thought that being with your mother when she died would have knocked some sense into you!”  
Lance flinched, pushing the memory away. When Aaron threatened to have a guard tail him, (no pun intended) Lance immediately promised not to go back up. He wanted as much freedom as he could have. He wasn’t even sure how his father found out, but he suspected Hunk had something to do with it. Hunk was a servant of the royal family whom Lance actually quite liked, but he wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if Hunk had seen him swim off and told the King. The guilt on Lance’s face probably only corroborated the story.

Dejected, Lance skipped dinner and swam up to bed. He was not angry at Hunk, or even at his father. He just felt sad and ashamed because his father was right. He had been with his mother. He should know better. When Esme asked him if he was alright, Lance had snapped at her to go away, and Esme’s golden tail had bristled, fins flaring up.

Lance lay on his back, eyes open. The gossamer covering lay soft and smooth over his body as the current rocked him. He had only been seven when it happened. He and his mother were swimming like they usually did to watch the clouds. They had always done it, pointing clown fish and octopi made of fluffy mist. It never seemed childish, not even now. It had really been just another day, as hackneyed as the phrase was. And then they had turned, and the ship had been right there. Queen Maria screamed at him to swim, screamed that she would be right behind him. And he swam. His mother had never broken a promise to him. He was swimming for his life when he heard the most heart stopping scream. Turning, he saw his mother, her beautiful black hair swirling around her face and she was pulled into the ship’s propeller. Lance screamed too. He wanted to swim back so bad, but his mother had told him not too. And as long as he lived, he would never forget the words after his mother’s scream.  
“Tell them I-”  
Tell them I what? She didn’t live long enough to finish her last request, and Lance would never know what it was. Esme had never felt her absence, but Lance felt it every minute. He had never told anyone the whole story, never told anyone about her last words.  
“I know you’ve gone up to the surface before, but I truly thought that being with your mother when she died would have knocked some sense into you!”  
Yes, his father’s implications had been clear. He could have and should have saved his mother. 

Lance didn’t go back up to the surface until two summers later.

~

Keith looked for him everyday. 

He spent so much time on the beach that by the time his two weeks were up, he was out of sunscreen. And it was a new bottle, too.

Despite his efforts, Keith never saw the brown hair again. He forgets in time-that is, until the next summer, where he looks and looks, never straying too far from the area of the first sighting.

Keith’s obsession could be attributed to a couple of things. First off, the guy was cute. But that didn’t keep you pining over someone for a year. Second, he had just...disappeared. Just turned around and been gone.

But the third thing was what really got Keith. When the man had turned and dove back into the waves, Keith had seen a scaly set of shimmery blue fins where legs should have been. A tail. The guy was a fucking mermaid. Keith had replayed the encounter so many times that everything was burned into his head. He had tried to convince himself that it was a trick of the light, mermaids didn’t exist outside of movies, that it was probably just a gigantic fish that just happened to be there. The theories got so crazy that Keith’s family started noticing him mumbling at the dinner table, looking for a possible explanation. He knew better, he knew what saw.

Keith wasn’t sure why he never told anyone. Maybe it was the inevitable ridicule that would follow. Maybe it was the look on the mermans face-he clearly hadn’t wanted to be seen. But mostly, Keith wanted this to himself. He wanted to be the one who knew about this world, these creatures. It was odd that Keith wasn’t that surprised. 

Another summer passes with no sign of the mermaid. Keith always swims in the same place, never daring to swim somewhere else, lest he miss the elusive creature. The ocean is beautiful, all sparkling waves with soft sand and seashells. The sun beats down, not unpleasantly, just perfect for a swim. It is definitely the kind of place where you would expect to see a mermaid frolicking in the water, maybe sunbathing on one of the numerous flat rocks in the area. 

The rest of that summer passes the same way. Keith enjoys it, but he wants more. It’s not complete without the fairytale he saw all those months ago.

That summer, Keith leaves the beach, determined to forget.

~

He does forget, mostly. It’s been so long that he can now convince himself it wasn’t real. That is, until the day he almost drowns.

It’s the year that his parents host the Kogane family reunion. They rent a huge beach house in the same area, and soon Keith is sharing a room with people he hardly knows.

It really goes to hell the next night. Keith’s uncle never accepted his sexuality, and over amazing mashed potatoes and chicken with a host of other dishes, Uncle Anthony lost it. He threw questions at Keith-Why can’t you just pick a girl? That’s not real, I don’t support this choice of lifestyle. But it was clear that this was far from the innocent curiosity of his little cousins. The worst part though was when Anthony had shouted at Keith’s parents that they should have dropped him on the streets as soon as he came out. Food and hunger forgotten, Keith ran out of the house and into the cool night air, listening to his mother scream. He ran down to that secluded area with the flat rocks and, fully clothed, he swam out. His mom was sure to just ‘give him a minute’, which he appreciated. He wanted no-one coming after him right now.

Keith already felt calmer in the water, it didn’t matter that he couldn’t see a damn thing. The world is...quiet here. No-one is shouting and the waves rock him gently until he thinks he might fall asleep, until he doesn’t care.

Rocks him gently until the wind picks up.

It was so sudden that Keith barely registered it until a wave slammed over him. His body twisted in the water, flipping over like a hijacked pancake. Salt water and sand filled his eyes, nose, mouth, clothes and he’s choking. Then he was above water again and rain was pelting against his skin, cooling the abrasions from the sand but another salty crest claimed him and he’s so tired. Maybe he’ll just sleep, forget about the sand, forget his uncle, his mother, forget about this place.

Strong arms wrapped around his waist. Soft. An angel had come to pull him to the clouds, to the place called heaven. As they broke the surface, a warm rain continued to fall, but it was barely a drizzle now. Keith was pushed onto his back, panting. He could feel his hair and clothes sticking to him along with the sand, but the rain would wash it all away. It wouldn’t take long. He caught a glimpse of brown and a flicker of shiny sapphire blue. And then a soft husky voice was singing softly, accompanied by pattering rain and moonlight. The words were rough and melancholy, but there was a poetic beauty about it too. The voice sang through choruses and verses until finally Keith opened his eyes. A lean, muscled body was lying in front of him. The brown hair curled around his face, and a blue tail flicked in the sand. It was him. It was the merman.

He reached out and cupped Keith’s face in his hands and smiled softly as he finished the song. He leaned down and his lips brushed Keith’s aching forehead. Then, he turned and pulled himself back to the water. Keith didn’t want him to go, didn’t want to alone. His voice, wrecked by sand and salt, managed to croak out a feeble “Wait.” 

The merman turned back for just a second and smiled. “Soon.” he promised. And then he slips away.

~

What the fuck did I just do?  
Lance tried to comprehend as he swam, head over tails back to the palace. He hadn’t meant to see him, he just missed the sun, and then there was no sun because it was night, which he didn’t know because he never went up anymore, and worse it was storming. And he saw a person kind of drowning and saved them, intending to just plop them on the sand, but it was that same face from two years ago and Lance just had to sing to him. And the man had opened his eyes. Lance had let a human see him, he had held the human’s face and it felt like he was holding the entire world. He made a promise to come back, but he was not sure he could keep it.

~

He doesn’t. Lance was actually watching Keith everyday, rapidly becoming more and more intrigued by the human. It was hard not to be, the guy just had this aura about him that almost made him glow in the sun. But Lance didn’t let himself be seen, and wasn’t long before Keith left the beach again for another year. 

~

Heartbroken. That was the only way to describe it. The merman hadn’t come back. Keith knew he didn’t dream it up. The merman was real, real as Keith, real as any human. But his promise had been fake.

The next summer, Lance waited eagerly for the dark haired man’s return, but when he finally came back, he was not alone.

~

Keith met Nicole in school last year when they were college freshmen. They’d quickly become friends and soon Nicole wanted something more. Truth be told, Keith said yes only because he wanted to get over that stupid merman. He needed a life now. He was no longer talking to his family and he had no friends except Nicole, but now they were dating. As they walked along the beach together, gazing out at the waves, Nicole suddenly stopped and said “Keith, is that man staring at us?” Keith followed her gaze and locked on a very familiar pair of blue eyes that he tended to see in his dreams. A warm blush filled his cheeks and he turned to walk back to the house they were staying in. “Keith?” he ignored Nicole’s voice and kept walking. When they got back, he explained to her everything, leaving out the mermaid thing though, and very awkwardly told her that he was pretty sure he was gay. Nicole just smiled sadly and said “I suspected so.” Keith didn’t ask her to elaborate, but he didn’t think it had been so obvious. They left early and fell apart on the way back home.

~

When Keith saw him the next year, he swam out as fast as he could, and when the merman ducked under, he kept swimming, finally brushing scales with his hand. A soft voice spoke very clearly inside his head as they both slowed to a stop: “Open your eyes.” Keith obeyed, shocked when there was no sting. He could see. And in front of him-Lance. He just knew it was Lance.

When Keith leaned forward and kissed him, four years of emotion poured out. Keith kissed him softly, then harshly, then gentle and loving and then passionate and wanting. Soon it was soft again, barely touching. Lance’s mouth was soft, and he murmured Keith’s name against his lips. Keith’s eyes blinked open. “How did you-”  
“You told me.”  
And Keith had, He’d told him through his head, his thoughts. Lance laughed at Keith’s shock before he pecked him on the cheek. And then there was one word on repeat from Lance’s head. Soulmate.

~

Late that night, naked and curled against Lance’s chest, Keith finally realized why he had waited so long.


End file.
